Miami Vice

Based on the trend-setting 80's television series full of neon flashes of South Beach decadence, one would have thought a movie based on Miami Vice would have been perfect for a summer blockbuster. Instead, director Michael Mann crafts a film that probably would have been more suited for the more subdued confines of an arthouse theater.

The basic premise from the old television series is familiar--Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs are undercover vice cops infiltrating the world of south Florida drug trafficking. The Italian-designed clothes, slick speedboats, roaring Ferraris, and moody soundtrack are still there, too, but that's where the similarities end. Shot in high definition digital video, the cinematography is grainy and dim. Instead of the pastel bright colors of South Beach glamour, we're taken along for a ride into the dark underbelly that exists in Miami outside the glitzy nightclubs and beachfront condos.

Colin Farrell has shown he can be an OK actor, but he's yet to display anything that I would consider leading man quality, and this is no different. I struggled through a quarter of his lines trying to figure out what he was trying to mumble or what accent he was trying to use. I can sure believe the rumors that he was stoned while he was making this film, prompting his need for rehab after production wrapped. Jamie Foxx fairs better, and this may be the first film I've seen him in where I wasn't thinking back to his comedic days on In Living Color. Gong Li gives probably the best performance, even despite a thick Chinese accent and choppy English that initially made me wince. Her strengths are in her presence and acting when she's not speaking, a skill that not many actors can accomplish.

The plot was pretty difficult to understand at times (not helped by the combination of Colin Farrell's mumbling and Gong Li's imperfect English). But the pacing was right on. The film starts out without even a title card and drops you straight into the middle of a Miami club where a bust is about to take place. Things sort of simmer over time, until things really boil over into the climactic minutes where Michael Mann really excels--grandiose urban shootouts. Pretty intense scenes that are almost on par with his previous work in Heat.

Rumor has it that the budget to make Miami Vice was around $140 million. I thought it funny that a recent review by the New York Times notes that this is well above the annual operating budget of the real Miami-Dade Police. Considering Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest cost about as to produce, I am left to wonder where all the money was spent on this picture. The shootouts were spectacular, but certainly nothing I would have thought would have been that expensive to produce. Awhile back, I read about a supposedly killer speedboat scene that was supposed to be in the movie. Even some of the promotional stills prior to the films release suggested we would see Crockett and Tubbs competing in a flashy boat race. Yet that scene never made it into the movie, and I wonder if much of the inflated budget was left on the cutting room floor. Perhaps a director's cut on DVD will reveal a more coherent movie and show us what $140 million really buys.

I really dig Michael Mann films and this is no different. He has yet to make a movie that I didn't like. I'll admit, though, Miami Vice wasn't what I was expecting for a summer movie blockbuster, and it probably would have worked better had it been released under a different title and without all the expectations that the old TV series brings to mind. It wasn't his best work, but I certainly think it was worth my money.

*** (out of *****)